LinkedIn currently has more than 575 million active registered users and is the perfect platform to showcase your business, engage with leaders and members of your industry, and define your company as a professional and trusted organization. It is not just for job-seekers anymore. Here’s how you can use LinkedIn to grow your business’s reach:
Optimize Your Page Profile
Your LinkedIn Company Page should both be filled out completely with the following elements:
- Logo and cover photo
- Company description
- Company website
- Location
- Industry
- Company type
- Company Size
Accurately and completely fill out the information in the “About Us” section of your company page so that viewers know exactly who your business is and what it does. Having a completed profile ensures that your business looks legitimate and professional. Make sure it follows the standards of your brand so that it is recognizable.
Additionally, you should make sure your personal profile is always up-to-date especially since you are connected to your company page. The professionalism of your business’s page should extend to your personal account.
Post Consistently
LinkedIn is not unlike other social media platforms in that a consistent posting schedule is necessary for increased engagement. Include at least two posts per week in your social media calendar in order to see the best engagement and an increase in followers.
Your posts should include:
- An engaging and descriptive caption
- An appealing image or dynamic video
- A couple relevant hashtags
A note from LinkedIn on using native video: “When on the LinkedIn platform, members are in a professional mindset, which makes them more receptive to business messaging — especially in video format. Research from Cisco Systems found that 75% of business executives watch work-related video weekly.”
Utilize LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn Pulse is a news aggregation feed within the platform that is designed for LinkedIn members to self-publish original content to share with their audience. According to Buffer, more than 100,000 organic articles are published weekly on LinkedIn. These Pulse posts will be posted to your personal LinkedIn and shared to your business page.
In addition to being relevant to the industry of your business, your Pulse content needs:
- A compelling headline
- An eye-catching cover photo
- A featured keyword
Publish Pulse posts regularly, as you would a blog, and choose topics that are timely and relevant to your brand. Additionally, share your Pulse post on other social media platforms, as well as your company’s business page.
Engage Through Groups
Though they haven’t garnered the best reputation in the past, LinkedIn has made efforts to revamp LinkedIn Groups as a great way for businesses to engage with other companies in their industry.
Not only should you search out and find groups to join that are relevant to your industry and seem to be sufficiently moderated and not full of spam, but you should also create your own group. Here’s how:
- Pick a relevant topic that will be engaging to users and that is not overused on LinkedIn Groups already.
- Just like you optimize your LinkedIn profile page and company page, make sure to fill out all of the necessary information about the group you are creating.
- Create message templates for requests to join your group, welcome messages, decline messages, and decline and blog messages.
- Begin to grow your group by inviting your connections, including any employees of your company and others in the same industry.
- Remain active in your group and start conversations.
- Keep your group clean and professional by moderating guest posts and removing any spam.
If you are ready to add LinkedIn to your social media strategy but don’t know where to start, we’re here to help you get started! Contact us today.